When The Hounds Came
by Lila Blue394
Summary: Sam and Caroline loose someone they hold dear and what follows will have some very big effects on them all caution character death... Dean/Caroline set at the end of season three
1. I'm Lost Without You

**_A/N: _**_This is a two shot about two people who lost someone they cared very deeply for and the consequences of what happens when you let grief live your life. _

* * *

"_Tell me something Dean." She asks her voice whisper soft as she looks out at the night sky through the opened window in the back seat of the Impala. She is leaning against his chest her white tank riding up on her flat belly her shorts moving as she glides her foot up and down his calf. "Anything." he promises. "Tell me that you'll always remember me." he smiles into her hair at that. Like he could ever forget Caroline. She was unforgettable. "I'll always remember you." she nods dragging her finger lazily across his arm. "Good." and he could hear the satisfaction in her voice. She turns around suddenly her green eyes looking into his. "You know I'll never forget you right?" he nods pushing a few stray strands of gold out of her eye. She smiles at him and it almost takes his breath away. He leans towards her and presses his lips to hers. "I'll love you forever Dean Winchester."_

_

* * *

_

There's no need for words any more. She knows what he is thinking when he makes a certain kinda face and she knows what he is saying with just one look his green fire eyes burning into her. He moves her hair out of her eyes while her hands clench onto his shirt desperately. He is going to die tonight and no matter what she does or what Sam tries to do the result will still be the same. He will leave them alone in a world that does not understand that could never understand. Sam turn's away either because of his own pain or because this scene between them is too painful she doesn't know and suspects that she never will.

She pulls him close to her pulls him in for one more caress one more kiss her body aching with the need to tell him just how she feels but knowing she cant. She does however whisper, "I'll love you forever Dean Winchester." her face is in the crook of his neck and she can feel his pulse quicken his breath is warm on the shell of her ear and his heart is pounding beneath her palm. "I…I love you to Caroline." it's the first time he's ever said those words to her. It never bothered her that he couldn't say she understood why. But God does she want to hear more.

He fist's one hand in her hair the other is on the swell of her back pulling her closer than ever before she feels like she could just crawl inside him and never leave him. She knows he will never leave her. Soon their pulled apart by the big clock chiming in the time. Midnight. Their running the blonde demon known as Ruby leading the way. Dean looks back hearing growls only he can hear. She scared not for herself but for him. It must be terrifying hearing and seeing things, no one else can. Sam and Ruby slam doors behind them pouring goopher dust on the floor. It will keep the hounds at bay but not for long soon they will be coming for their prize soon the man that she loved more than her own life was going to be dead.

Dean holds her close trying to keep calm when Ruby turns white eyes on them tearing her and Sam from Dean. She pins Dean against a table she and Sam against a wall. Crazy laughter fills the room as she opens the doors letting the hounds in. They rip into Dean sending his blood spraying across the room. His screams echo in her ears as she and Sam are forced to watch the light go out of his eyes. The only sounds left are Sam crying, "Dean! No…no!" and her sobs that are so loud she's afraid she will go deaf.

There is a ball of light coming from the bitch Lilith and she knew they were going to die. Sam moved in front of her but she didn't care anymore if she lived or die. Fuck, it let the bitch take her here and now. Lets get this done she was ready. However, nothing happens nothing at all. But she can move now. Sam moves towards Lilith his bitter words ringing out in the room filing her with cold dread.

But she couldn't focus on Sam not right now not with Dean on the floor his blood still spilling out of his body. Not with his skin already turning the pale color of the dead. That grey color that lets you know that someone was long gone. She scream's just as Lilith does all her pain pouring out of her in one feral blood-curdling scream. Her body fails her and she crashes to the ground on her knees her hands reach desperately for him hoping against hope that there's still a heartbeat that life still beats just beneath the surface. She prays with all her might that he still lives.

Blood his blood covers her and Sam chest to thigh and hands sticky with the stuff. Sam puts bloody hands to her face empty eyes look into empty eyes just as Bobby burst through the door. Blue eyes take in the destruction takes in a white face covered in blood and two people that has just lost everything. Her tears have dried up and now she just feels lost and empty. Like her soul has just been ripped away. She wipes the blood from her face as Bobby and Sam carry Dean's lifeless form from the house that will forever be burned into her memory. And why not it the place where she has just lost everything.

It's a short drive to the place where they will burry Dean he picked out himself and soon she is on the ground washing the blood from his body. She feels a little like Mary from the bible. How she washed Jesus body and prepared him for his after life. Except that, this is a totally different scenario. Her hands move with a cautious care as she wipes the blood from his mouth and face then moves down to his chest careful of the deep and never ending claw marks on his chest. It was almost as if she was afraid she would hurt him if she weren't careful. When she was done, they redressed him in his favorite shirt and jacket Sam put on his pants. She put his socks and boots on lacing them with care. No one spoke no one could speak it was like when Dean died all the life went out of them.

As Bobby pulled out all the things that were needed to set his body to flames, she cringed, held Dean's body closer, and listened quietly to the argument that raged. Bobby wanted him salted and burned Sam didn't. "Bobby's right Sam. I…I know that you think you can bring him back but this is what Dean would have wanted. Don't we owe him that?" Sam turned to look at her his hazel eyes burning bright with betrayal. She caved in that moment Sam and Bobby were all she had left. Sam was all she had left of Dean. "We'll do it your way." she whispers hoarsely.

She doesn't want to but she lets them take him from her and watches them lower him into the hand made coffin Sam hammers the lid down Bobby never touches her like he's afraid she will break if he does but she can feel his comfort washing over her in waves she just wishes she could comfort him to. He lost him to Dean and Sam were like sons to him he loved those boys with a fathers love fierce and strong burning bright in the darkest night and his pain was palpable. Once the coffin was covered and Bobby placed a little handmade cross at the head marking where Dean lay they all seemed to break just a little more.

_Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake _  
_ and dress them in warm clothes again._


	2. I Was Supposed To Protect You

_**A/N:**__ something that was supposed to be a one shot just turned into something more. Well part one of Sam's pov is done I hope you like it! Oh and btw there are excerpts from a few of Richard Siken's poems Scheherazade and The Problem._

_

* * *

_

_Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it's noon, that means _

_we're inconsolable._

Sam's world is falling apart little by little shards fall away and cut him deep. But he's to tired to notice. Did you know that sleeping all the time is a sign of depression? Well he does he looked it up. Sleeping is all that he and Caroline do anymore. She will crawl up Bobby steps like moving is just too much and she will crash on the bed fully clothed. He joins her most days. Most days they will spend all day up in that tiny spare room curled up in a ball the windows blacked out to keep all the light out covers from an all too small bed pulled up over their heads. Cocooning themselves in the darkness and grief that rules.

Then one day he just snaps looses all control rages until he can't rage any more slamming things throwing things. Caroline is cowering on the steps like an abuse victim. When his anger fizzes out as it always does, she goes and picks up his mess quietly like she is afraid she will set him off. Instead of soothing him like he sure it's meant to it does the opposite and he leaves storms out of the house leaving Caroline behind silent tears streaming down all too pale face.

Did you know that not sleeping is also a sign of depression? Well he does because he looked that up to. His fingers fly across the key board his ever-present bottle next to him. He looks through all of Bobby's old tomes and goes to the local library and searches through theirs to. He keeps searching until his fingers bleed from the paper cuts and are numb from typing on the computer. His eyes are blurry from reading to much and there is so much damn information in his head he's afraid it will explode.

And he wont even talk about his own drinking he spends most of his time so drunk and angry that he actually got into a bar fight. Yeah that's right little Sammy Winchester picked a bar fight. When he comes home its Caroline that takes care of him. Her beautiful eyes that used to remind him of Dean. What with the gold flecks and the green fire that burned deep within. Now all they hold are pain. Their dulled by it.

She wipes away the blood from his mouth and from his knuckles as she did for Dean. That memory forever burned in his mind. The way she wiped his brother clean of blood and redressed him. She never says a word he doesn't even think she can talk anymore. She wraps his bruised and cut hands in gauze with gentle care her own hands move with gentle precision. Her fingers brushing against his and he's reminded of a better time. Of a time when Dean was alive. A time when she was done she would have offered him a perky smile that lit up those eyes of hers she would have kissed his cheek and told him to quit being stupid. But that was practically a lifetime ago.

He just can't take it anymore its killing him so he starts to pull away. Their pain is just too much for him. His brother who at times was more like a father was dead taken from him in the cruelest way known to man. He was forced to watch the life ebb from his eyes. That sparkle that never seemed to fade even in the worst circumstance fizzed out while he was pinned to a wall. His brother screams mingled with Caroline's still ring in his ears making him feel like he will go deaf.

To ease the pain he starts to go on hunts by himself searching for Lilith. If it's the last thing he does he'll bring that bitch's head back on a silver platter. Before long Ruby finds him. However, he's been betrayed by her and doesn't trust her that is until he does. It'll be the worst mistake he'll ever make and he knows that somewhere deep down he does know that but he doesn't care anymore. He's lost, he's broken, and his big brother isn't here to fix him anymore.

Caroline joins him before long and Ruby isn't happy about that but he tells her to suck it that where he goes she goes. It'll be another wrong move but like trusting Ruby, he won't know that until it's too late. Caroline keeps him grounded keeps him human even if she doesn't feel that way. They slash and burn through towns hunting things and saving people.

The Impala that was once filled with laughter and arguments the Impala that once seemed to cradle him like a mothers arms that has been as much as a part of his family as his dad, Dean, Caroline and Bobby is silent now and instead of making him feel safe it just intensifies the pain he feels. It should been Dean behind the wheel him in the passenger seat and Caroline stretched out like a cat in the back. It should be filled with a bit of happiness the only place to feel normal. Instead, it's filled with quiet pain and anger that boils just below the surface. And there's no such thing as normal now if there ever was any to begin with.

_Why do anything at all? Not how, because hows_

_are easy, series or sequence, one foot after the other, but existentially why bother, what does it solve? _

Caroline's dislike for Ruby is palpable green eyes that are still dull look on in distrust as they were directed to a job just outside of her hometown. He makes promises he knows he will never keep promises and he suspects she knows it to but she still goes. It'll be her undoing. The Impala is quiet devoid of music the only sound the roar of the engine. However, that's when the argument starts. She yells at him about Ruby and he has a moment where bitter thoughts cloud his mind. The only time she speaks anymore is to remind him of how much Dean would hate that he relies on Ruby so much. Doesn't she know he _knows _that? Doesn't she realize that he knows how much Dean would hate this how much Dean would yell, shout, and rage about how stupid this was?

He knows what Dean would say, _"look at the last time, I died the last time we trusted her" _he knows all that. So he yells back tells her to, "Shut the fuck up I get it already!" hurt shines bright in her eyes and it breaks off another little piece of him. She used to be his best friend the one person he could run and hide to the one person he could tell all his secrets to. He gets she's hurting to he gets that her pain is all consuming at the moment but so is his. There so lost in this never-ending argument he doesn't see the man standing in the road before it's to late.

He swerves misses the man just in time but he over corrects and sends the Impala spinning flipping it making it roll into the ditch. The last thing he sees just before the world goes blacker than the night sky is Caroline on the roof looking like a rag doll that was carelessly tossed away bleeding from a gash on her forehead.

His head is pounding his body aching and out of instinct he reaches for Caroline but all he finds is cold wet asphalt. His head spins as he gets to his knees eyes blurry form a concussion he knows he has and he searches for her. But he wont find her she's gone, gone like his brother gone like everyone else he loves somehow he's sure of that fact. He yells for her anyways.

"Caroline! Caroline!"

He calls for her until he's too hoarse to say another word and yet he still tries. Lying on the cold wet asphalt he calls for his friend the one person he was supposed to protect the one person Dean cared so much about and he had just let her slip away like a thief in the night. "Sam?" He hears someone calling his name and for a moment in time he thinks its Caroline that, she's not really gone that she wasn't taken but it's not her. A girl with long brown hair and endless brown eyes looks down on him. Elena. "Sam? Oh my God what happened?" she's frantic and he means to reassure her somehow but he just can't find the words and the darkness calls to him once more. The last thing he hears is Elena screaming, "Sam! Sam come on Sam! Stefan help me!"


	3. Have I Failed You

_**A/N: **__and so here it is the last chapter…I'm not thrilled with it but here it is. I hope you like it…the excerpt at the beginning is from Richard Siken's poem "War of Foxes"_

_

* * *

_

_Let me tell you a story about war. A fisherman's son and his dead brother sat on the shore. That is my _

_country and this is your country and the line in the sand is the threshold between them, said the dead brother. Yes, said _

_the fisherman's son._

_You cannot have an opponent if you keep saying yes._

The first sounds he hears are the beeping of the heart monitor and his first reaction is to freak out. He jerks upright his eyes scanning the unfamiliar hospital room. He's looking for her needs to find her has to protect her it was his job but he doesn't find her and remembers just why he couldn't. "Sam." He jerks toward the soft words soft and sweet like the person talking was inviting you to sit and be calm to let her take away your fears. Caroline always said Elena had that way about her.

She sits in a chair beside his bed and Sam honestly just wants to runaway to pull the tubes from his veins and run. He's waiting for her to yell at him to hit him something anything other than the careful concern he sees burning in her chocolate eyes. She crosses one leg over the other and looks at him for a moment longer before she pulls out a magazine (from where he has no idea) and starts to read.

Aside from Caroline, Elena Gilbert is the most confusing woman he has ever met. But at the same time she is as transparent as glass. He knows what she's doing knows she's gonna wait him out she thinks given enough time he'll talk to her open up and tell her all his nasty little secrets and trust him these days he has a few of those in his closet. But she doesn't know him that well doesn't know that he can keep everything he wants hidden, hidden. No matter how long she waits.

* * *

Elena will wait him out she has no problem with that. Not after what she heard him whisper while he was out. The same thing over and over again. Dean dead, big brother gone. It breaks her heart. She knew Dean was gone knew what happened Caroline had called and Stefan had gone and checked on her. She was worried as all hell about her friend but Elena knew that she wouldn't get anything out of Sam if she pushed him. She liked Sam wished he would open up to her tell her what was going on and tell her just what happened to Caroline. So she'll wait here for him to tell her he cant keep it a secret for long he'll have to come clean sometime.

Before long Sam gets the doctors to release him she wasn't surprised Caroline told her they had away of avoiding hospitals. This is why she basically became Sam twenty four hour security guard. She'd take the day shift Stefan the night. Granted it was just for one day but Elena knew if left alone Sam would book and they would never get answers then. Stefan looks at her from his place against the wall he's none to happy with this plan of hers if he had been Caroline she would have been all for it but he wasn't Caroline.

Elena sighed and ran her fingers through her hair frustration running through her like wild fire. They needed to find her. She looked through the window of Sam's hospital room saw him sitting on his bed looking frantic and so lost. If anybody needed anyone right now it was him. There was something that was scary about Sam something she saw in his eyes that made her more nervous than Damon ever used to.

"Elena we don't need this right now not with Katharine on the loose." he was right of course Stefan usually was with things like this but when she looked at the younger Winchester sitting on his bed fully clothed looking so lost she just couldn't abandon him not when he was like this. "We owe them Stefan him and Dean if it weren't for them you Damon and Caroline would be dead right now." He nodded and looked away from her but he didn't say more he already voiced his opinion on Caroline personally she thought it was crap Sam Winchester couldn't hurt Caroline even if he tried. Those two were as close as two people could be without a sexual relationship. They were family pure and simple.

But what worried Elena wasn't the possibility that Sam hurt Caroline but that he would abandon the quest to find her for another one that plagued his mind. The quest to bring his brother back the one that involved killing the demon that took him away. That's what worried Elena. She knew that no matter who was watching Sam at the time given just one opportunity he would be gone in a heart beat. They did have one thing working for them though. The Impala. It was still in the shop and would be for another week and she knew that no matter what he would never leave the Impala.

Jenna voiced her opinion about Sam staying in the house and voiced it loudly. But when she explained what was going on without actually going into detail (something she was getting very good at lately) Jenna calmed down. Jeremy of course knew everything but that was because Alaric had started training him in the ways of a vampire hunter Caroline would be so proud of Jeremy just as proud as she was. Even Sam helped on the training telling him about the other kinds of vampires that were out there. And it really shouldn't worry her that he was doing all this but from what she knew of Sam it kinda did.

She sighed and tossed herself onto the couch she hated feeling this way like she was watching a time bomb that was ready to explode a bomb that's time clock was slowly ticking away. She closed her eyes for just a moment just to rest she was so tired of watching Sam and keeping Damon and Caroline's mom at bay was getting harder and harder every moment. And the distrust Stefan and Bonnie felt towards Sam was slowly wearing thin. Trying to be watch keeper and protect Sam was a tough job. But since Caroline wasn't here someone had to do it. But going to sleep would prove to be a bad idea. She just wouldn't know how much until later when it would all blow up in her face.

As it turns out when faced with two angry/worried vampire's a worried witch and a hunter in training keeping secrets was a hard thing to do. And taking a drink offered by said hunter in training was an even worse idea. He knew something was off by the second sip but it was already too late and he was having a hard time standing upright like he had drank too much which was silly since he hadn't touched the stuff in a while. "What did you…what did you give me." he's falling down but arms lift him up his vision is blurry so he can't tell who it is but he has an idea. "Don't worry about it Sam just sleep, sleep and everything will be fine." Bonnie her voice soft melodic luring him to do just that. And before he can utter a protest he's out.

* * *

Blood pours form his nose and he tries so hard to keep his dirty little secret just that a secret but Bonnie is more powerful than he remembers. And soon he's telling them everything they want to know. Tears spill from his eyes he maybe out like a fucking light but he can still feel the guilt the pain of loosing his brother and loosing Caroline. It his fault all of it is his fault. The door crashes open and he hears scream's and the words that will haunt him. "She's dead you morons! Precious little Caroline is dead!" angry words are tossed about as he's lifted up and carried out of the house. He's tossed into a car as the door closes familiar smells surrounds him. Dean, Caroline, Impala. It smells of life and death of love and friendship.

But it just makes him weep all the harder because the only thing he'll have in his life now is death. It's the only thing a friendship with a demon will bring. Death. Well bring it he welcomes it now. There was no bringing back Dean that was a fool's errand Caroline is gone now the only thing he has left is to kill the bitch that was responsible for this. He knew what his job was now. He has to kill Lilith even if it means he dies as well.

* * *

Elena was furious. Well furious really didn't begin to describe just what she was at the moment if they had just listened to her then this shit wouldn't have happened. And no amount of telling her that he was working for a demon or with however you looked at it was going to convince her otherwise. "We need to tell his friend that guy that Caroline talked so highly of." Jeremy murmured at least he understood. What they had done was so wrong Caroline would be so mad. But that was a moot point wasn't it? Caroline was gone now and she was never coming back. And yet Elena was still trying to do her job of protecting Sam. "We'll call him but we can't tell him everything.""And why not?" Damon asked for once his normal smirk was gone. "Because then I would have to tell him what you did. Bonnie you're a witch and you two…" She sighs changes her tone and tactics they didn't know how could they living in this town they were protected to a certain degree Sam and Dean where the only hunters to come to this town since the civil war. As far as she knew at least. "Look that little stunt could bring a world we have no clue about down on our heads. If we tell Bobby or Sam decides to tell anybody or even take revenge… tell me what do you think will happen."

Well hallelujah they finally got. Elena just hoped that what they did wouldn't have any adverse effects. "Excuse me I have to go and break the news to Caroline's family." soon when this day was over she could finally grieve for the friend that she had just lost. She could curl up into a ball and cry until she couldn't anymore.

At this point in her life Elena is more than used to loss. She lost her parents in an accident that should have killed her to if it wasn't for Stefan and now she lost one of the best people she has ever had the pleasure of knowing. Calling Bobby had been harder than she thought it would be. He told her just what to do to the body and just why they had to do that. At least they could thank the demon for that much if it wasn't for her they wouldn't have a body. Telling Caroline's mother was harder than telling Bobby what surprised her though was that she had completely agreed with Bobby telling them they had to salt and burn her.

Elena had been happy not knowing any of this she missed her old life she missed a time when she didn't know about angry spirits and that Caroline could turn into one. "It's a bloody life she led Elena. A bloody and hard life." she really wanted to ask her how she knew all this but thought better of it. Liz Forbes will tell what she wants to tell when she wants to and not a moment before. So they had a very public funeral where practically the whole town came. What they didn't know as people sobbed and cried about the unfairness of such a short life cut down in the prime that they were doing it over an empty coffin.

When darkness fell over Mystic Falls over a little spot that was peaceful and pretty all the things Caroline didn't get to have in her life a place where she liked to run and hide when she was a kid was where the real funeral took place. Jeremy her sweet little brother had made a hand made cross small nothing special but Caroline would have loved it. Bonnie put some sorta spell on making it invisible to people that just might come across the spot. Liz poor Liz sat on the ground Caroline's head in her lap brushing away the golden strands of hair from her face.

Damon, Stefan and her brother dug the grave and piled dried wood in it Bonnie, Liz and her wrapped the body in linen with care like they were afraid they would hurt her. As they laid her body in the ground and poured the salt and kerosene over her body Elena prayed Caroline was in a better place. They watched the flames consume the body of their friend and then covered it up with dirt.

When it was all said and done and they were walking away from Caroline's final resting place Elena couldn't shake the feeling that she was failing Caroline in some way. That this was all somehow wrong. So she lagged behind but since everyone was so lost in their own grief no on noticed except for Damon but he always noticed what she does. "Do you get the feeling we're failing her some how?" she ask. She expects him to laugh her off to tell her that this was just a figment of her imagination. That Caroline was long gone and she was never coming back. But all he would say is, "If I were you and Sam I wouldn't trust everything that demon had to say."

* * *

Her heart is pounding beating so hard she's afraid that it will beat right out of her chest. With dirty hands she pushes her hair out of her eyes and looks around the small dank cell. She has no idea where she is or what's happened to her. The door to her cell burst open slamming against the wall she cringes away from the light scurrying up against the wall trying to get as far away as she could. Standing in the door way is a woman with shoulder length black hair and black eyes. Ruby.

"What have you done?" She snarls. Whishes she had her strength but it seems to have fled at the moment. "What was needed." She says a smirk playing on her face. "With you out of the picture I have a clear path to the boy king." Sam. Oh God Sammy. Ruby stalks closer to her and kneels down in front of her their noses almost touching. "They'll use you bleed you dry and then maybe they'll turn you but personally I hope the kill you." Ruby grabs a handful of hair and yanks back making her grunt. "Now stay and be a good little blood donor. Elijah is going to like you I think."

Ruby abruptly lets go and walks away but pauses at the door when she calls out. "If…if it's the last thing I do Ruby I will kill you. I'll get free and I will kill you." Ruby throws her head back and let's loose a laugh that has her skin crawling. "I'd like to see that Blondie I would dearly like to see that." With that she walks out of the room and slams the door shut plunging the cell into darkness. She refuses to cry no matter how much she wants to she refuses to cry. Sam and the others needed her she had to get free had to get out of here. And if it's the last thing she does she will get out of here.

_** The End…or is it?**_


End file.
